Giffords Was Concerned with Rhetoric

The Extreme Rhetoric about Extreme Rhetoric (With Bonus Fake Sinclair Lewis Fascism Quote!)
I’ve yet to see any of those pundits and Bloggers that wished, hoped, prayed that they could wring political points out of the awful crime in Tucson concede that their immediate suggestions (because the smart ones always include a smattering of weasel words and phrases; “probably,” “could be”) that the gunman was a disgruntled Tea Partier were spectacularly wrong. Alas, no one has admitted that they jumped the gun, that political considerations dictated their response to the M

Rick Santorum Opposes Bullseye Ban
By Grant Bosse (MANCHESTER, NH) Rick Santorum doesn’t want to restrict Political Speech in the wake of this weekend’s shooting in Tuscon, Arizona. The former Republican Senator discussed calls for toning down fiery political Rhetoric following the attempted Assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, which left six people dead. Congressman Robert Brady (D-PA) has proposed banning cross-hairs and bullseyes in political ads, as liberal commentators have tried to tie accu...

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik Isn't Who You Think He Is
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has become something of a liberal hero in the last few days, speaking out against the "vitriol" of today's political climate and dubbing Arizona "the Mecca for prejudice and Bigotry." As the left accuses the right of inflaming the political debate, Dupnik has been a prominent voice blaming heated Rhetoric for Jared Lee Loughner's attack, which left six dead. But, as Slate's Christopher Beam finds, the sheriff is a bit more complicated: But a look through Dupn...

Supporters urge Palin to hit back at liberal critics on Giffords shooting
Sarah Palin has stayed mostly silent on the Arizona massacre. This may be smart for her in the long-term - and if so, she is right to take the long-term view. After all, at this point no one should second-guess Palin’s political instincts . You do not rise from PTA mom to the head of the conservative political stratosphere by making dumb moves. Facing a firestorm of unwarranted criticism over gun metaphors that her enemies claim fed the heated political climate surrounding the Tucso...

Zev Yaroslavsky: A Time to Cool the Rhetoric
On Saturday morning, before she was shot, Gabrielle Giffords was performing one of her most vital duties as a public servant. She was meeting with the public. The Arizona congresswoman knew there were risks; last March, the windows of her office were shattered after her vote for Health Care reform. During her hotly contested campaign for Reelection, gun gimmicks and imagery abounded. On a map on Sarah Palin's political action committee's website, Giffords' district was among a number that had ...

Congressional leaders lay blame for Tucson killing
Partisan representatives and their aides have slung Rhetoric over the circumstances that led to the Murder of 6, and the wounding of 14 more, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, last weekend.  While Obama assured the country that “the perpetrator of a heinous crime” would be brought to justice, Democrats and Republicans slumped into their comfort zone.  Most media outlets have concluded that Jared Loughner, the man who held the gun, is mentally unstable, yet politi...

Poll: Majority of Americans don't blame vitriol for shootings
A majority of Americans, 57 percent, say they don't think heated political Rhetoric contributed to the shooting rampage that left six dead and 14 others hurt in Tucson, according to a new CBS poll. Another 32 percent think vitriol did play a part. Even broken down by party lines, Americans tend to disagree that political dialogue mattered. Among Republicans, 69 percent said political discourse played no role, with 19 percent saying it did. Democrats were more split: 49 percent said there was n...

NYC Tea Partier Thinks the Rhetoric is Coming from the Left
Manhattan Tea Party Leader David Webb said that left-leaning media organizations and polticians have been "irresponsible and despicable" in attempting to connect the Arizona shooter to the Tea Party even though they have no evidence. "[The shooting] had absolutely nothing to do with the Tea Parties or Sarah Palin's map," Webb said, referring to the well publicized map of 'target' districts released by Sarah Palin's political action fund during last year's Midterm Elections. Contrary to initial...

How Do You Say Something You Know Isn't True And Avoid Getting Called On It? Let The Media Show You!
Suppose I want to say "Jared Loughner was inspired by a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh, episodes of Sarah Palin's Alaska, and Tea Party rallies." What is the defect in that? Well, if you're a leftist, it's perfect in every single way: It connects a shooting to your political enemies and gives you an advantage you can't get via your policies. But the one problem with it -- which isn't a problem so much as an obstacle -- is that it's simply not true. But it's so wonderful! It should be true; the fa...

Extremist Rhetoric, Violence and American History
The massacre in Tucson has generated a major and intense debate across the country about whether the overheated political climate—the Rhetoric, the “vitriol, “Extremist Speech”—has influenced or motivated the Tucson shooter to commit his dastardly crime. Just as reflected in the commentary on this site, the national opinion runs the gamut, from holding the shooter solely and 100 percent responsible, to holding personalities such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh solely and 100

Demagogues And The Right
A reader writes: The question that remains is clear enough at this point:  Even though we can’t with any degree of confidence draw a connection between political demagoguery (as Mac Donald rightly terms it) and the violence, why should we accept and tolerate, even encourage, the demagoguery? It’s telling that, with the exception of MacDonald and one or two others, no one on the right, and certainly not the usual suspects (Limbaugh, Levin, Palin, Beck, etc.) are willing to acknowledge...

GOP Rep: Loughner's Beliefs 'The Liberal Of Liberals'
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) says political Rhetoric doesn't really incite violent behavior at all -- but not before describing Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner as a "Communist" and "the liberal of liberals." "This guy appears to be a communist," Foxx told the Winston-Salem Journal. "His beliefs are the liberal of the liberals [sic]. There is no evidence whatsoever that this man was influenced by Sarah Palin or anybody in the Republican Party. This man is not a conservative; he's a fan of ...

Both Sides Arent The Same
The big difference between right and left, as I and others have noted repeatedly, isn’t just in the amount of violent Rhetoric, but its source. On the liberal side, it only occasionally comes from movement leaders. On the right, it regularly does. It comes from opinion leaders, political leaders, and media leaders, and the more heated they get, the more popular they get. In the past 2½ years, prominent Republicans have stoked the fires of Extremism. During the 2008 campaign, Palin acc...

Daily scoreboard
1. From the Baltimore Sun: If the cold keeps up, the Chesapeake Bay may freeze over. First time in 7 years. Which was 2004. Which was one of those Hottest Years Ever. Under tough luck, you stole the Browns rule… GOOD. 2. From the Associated Press: “The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that the Supreme Court freed it from any authority to regulate drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a quick overseas source of lethal sodiu...

What Did Sheriff Dupnik Know and When Did He Know It?
The Arizona shootings have made Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, the man in charge of investigating the tragedy, a liberal hero for his comments targeting what he calls the "irresponsible" political Rhetoric of Conservatives. But he also has critics who say his department was well aware of Jared Loughner's mental instability and may have been slow to respond to death threats the suspect made in the months leading up to Saturday's rampage. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for thos...

NYC Tea Partier Thinks the Rhetoric is Coming from the Left
Manhattan Tea Party Leader David Webb said that left-leaning media organizations and polticians have been "irresponsible and despicable" in attempting to connect the Arizona shooter to the Tea Party even (Read more...) ...

Bill Clinton: Politics must change after Arizona attack
Source: BBC 11 January 2011 Last updated at 14:13 ET Former President Bill Clinton has told the BBC the US political climate must change after the shooting of a US Congresswoman and others in Arizona. "No one intends to do anything that encourages this sort of behaviour," he said. But political Rhetoric "falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike". He said political differences should not "degenerate into demonisation". Some commentators suggest the vitriolic political Rhetoric in the US may hav...

Citing shootings, Sen. Sanders solicits campaign donations
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) issued a Fundraising plea Tuesday in which he cited the Tucson shooting and accused "right-wing reactionaries" of contributing to a threatening political climate. "Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few words with political friends in Vermont and throughout the country," he wrote at the opening of the lengthy plea for campaign donations. Sanders, who is up for Reelection i...

And Steve Jobs Said Let There Be a Verizon iPhone
Right Pushes Back about Rhetoric’s Role in Ariz. Shooting Were These Bizarre Videos Made by the Arizona Shooter? (Update)...

Sarah Palin's presidential hopes surely can't survive this assassin's bullet | Jonathan Freedland
It's not exactly fair. Palin didn't pull the trigger that killed six people, including a nine-year-old girl, in Arizona and left a member of Congress fighting for her life. But politics isn't fair. The cold reality is that the individual most politically damaged by the Saturday shootings is the former vice-presidential Candidate turned Reality TV star, bestselling author and all-round media phenomenon. For proof, just imagine how a Palin Presidential Campaign would now unfold. Her fellow Republi...

Arizona Lawmaker In Palin's 'Crosshairs' Says Blame Game Is Not Helpful (VIDEO)
Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, who like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was targeted by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said in an interview Tuesday that "the blame game is not helpful right now." Still, former Rep. Kirkpatrick said that being featured on Palin's list of 20 districts -- complete with a map of what a Palin aide called "surveyor marks" -- "was especially disconcerting for our families." "Well, you know, it was angry and mean-spirited campaign in many ways and I think it's real...

In Wake of Tucson Tragedy, What's Sarah Palin's Next Move?
Sarah Palin and her campaign website targeting Congressional Democrats. (Credit: CBS/AP) In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona - in which six were killed and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 13 others were injured - Sarah Palin has maintained a relatively low profile. After expressing her "sincere condolences" to the shooting's Victims and their families via Facebook on Saturday, Palin has made only one other statement to the press: an e-mail to Glenn Beck, which ...

Mitch Daniels cautious about presidential run
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.) suggested he might not seek the 2012 Republican nomination for president on Tuesday. Daniels, whose name regularly appears on shortlists for the Republican nomination, said that he is only considering running. "I wouldn't hold your breath for that," the Northwest Times of Indiana reported. "A lot of people have asked me to think about it, so we will." In the same interview though Daniels showed more than a little willingness to criticize the Obama Administ...

Shouldnt we protect the supermarkets first?
From the Charleston Gazette: “In light of Saturday’s shooting rampage in Arizona that left six dead and a congresswoman critically injured, one State Legislator Sunday called for toughening security at the West Virginia Capitol.” The Shooting Spree was at a Supermarket. I guess the people who want to turn the Capitol into Super Max have been waiting for an opportunity to roll out the metal detectors. Full-body scanners eventually will appear at all government buildings. ...

CBS News Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated
A new CBS News poll shows that Americans are not falling for the Left’s attempts to exploit on the Tucson tragedy for political purposes: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone...